Meaning: “to light; to burn; to kindle; divider; judge; host of a feast.”
Gender: Male
Modern Greek: Daitor (DYE-tore)
Eng pron: DAY-tor
The name is derived from the Greek δαίω (daio) meaning, “to light; to burn; to kindle,” and “to divide, share, tear” or “to host a feast.” The element has the same meaning as distributing justice, items or food.”
It is borne in the Illiad by a minor character, a Trojan warrior who attacked the Greek fleet during the tenth year of the Trojan war and was subsequently shot dead.
Meaning: “fire; flame;” also a diminutive form of Urban
Gender: Male
Usage: Finnish
Pron: (PAH-noo)
The name began as a Finnish diminutive form of the Latin name Urban. The name took on new significance in the 19th century, when Finnish national romanticism reinterpreted Panu through its resemblance to the native word panu, meaning “fire” or “flame.”
In Finnish folklore and epic poetry, Panu appears as the spirit or personification of fire, particularly in the mythological corpus connected to the Kalevala.
The name’s modern popularity was reinforced by Juhani Aho’s 1897 historical novel Panu, which centers on the clash between Christianity and ancient Finnish paganism. In Aho’s novel, the protagonist Panu is the last pagan priest defending the old faith. The book was highly influential in the Finnish national revival movement and helped cement Panu as a culturally resonant personal name.
The designated name-day in Finland is November 11.
The name comes directly from the Latvian word meaning, “rascal, mischievous; lively man.” The word itself may be connected to the Old Polish ogier (stallion), or the Estonian oja (stream). The Polish ogier – stallion – rascal, seems more likely.
It likely came into use thanks to the Latvian eponymous short story, Ojārs (1892) by Ānsis Lerhis-Puškaitis. It was first recorded as a given-name in Riga in 1903, inducted into the Latvian name-day calendar in 1908, and started to experience relative popularity between the 1920s-1970s.
Notable bearers include, Latvian sculptor, Ojārs Arvīds Feldbergs (b. 1947); Latvian singer, Ojārs Grīnbergs (1942-2016); Latvian politician, Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš (1949-2021); and Latvian author, Ojārs Vācietis (1933-1983).
The designated name-day is November 11th.
Source
Siliņš, Kārlis. Latviešu personvārdu vārdnīca. Rīga: Avots, 1990.
Makeda (also rendered Makda or Mäkēda) is a female name of Ethiopian origin, best known as the traditional name of the Queen of Sheba in Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Geʽez sources.
In the Kebra Nagast (“The Glory of Kings”), Ethiopia’s national epic written in Geʽez, Makeda is portrayed as the Queen of Sheba who visits King Solomon in Jerusalem — a story paralleling the biblical and Qurʾānic accounts. Through her union with Solomon, she becomes the ancestress of the Solomonic dynasty, which ruled Ethiopia for centuries.
While the precise etymology of the name in Geʽez or Amharic is debated, some Ethiopian scholars interpret it as meaning “greatness, prominence, power,” and according to the original legend, it means “not thus,” from when she proclaimed it was thus not right to worship the sun but the God of the Hebrew Bible. Other sources relate it to the same root as the name Magdala (tower), and others have suggested it is a corruption of Candace.
In modern Ethiopia, Makda is a variation.
This name was given to Bob Marley’s daughter in 1981, which set off a trend of use in the African-American community.
The name Hephzibah (Hebrew חֶפְצִי־בָהּ, Ḥefzī-bāh) means “my delight is in her.” In the Hebrew Bible, it appears as the name of the wife of King Hezekiah and the mother of King Manasseh (2 Kings 21:1; 2 Chronicles 33:1).
In Isaiah 62:4, Hephzibah is also used symbolically as a poetic name for restored Zion, representing the renewed favor of God toward His people
The name was occasionally used among medieval Jewish communities, where it appears in apocryphal and mystical writings such as the Apocalypse of Zerubbabel and the Zohar. In these texts, a legendary warrior woman named Hephzibah fights the enemies of Israel in the messianic age, slaying wicked kings and defending Jerusalem.
Hephzibah enjoyed modest popularity among Protestant families in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in colonial America and Puritan New England, where Old Testament names were widely favored. Common diminutives included Eppie, Hepsie, and Hepsy.
By the early 20th century, the name’s use had largely waned, surviving mainly as a literary or historical curiosity.
It was often utilized in 19th-century literature, being the name of a character in George Eliot’s Silas Marner (1861); and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables (c. 1851), which features Hepzibah Pyncheon, a proud but impoverished New England gentlewoman. Recently, it appears as the name of a witch in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
An early notable bearer was American Bostonian Socialite, Hepzibah Swan (d. 1825, unknown birth date). A more recent notable bearer is American-Australian pianist, Hephzibah Menuhin (1920-1981).
It is also the name of several places in the United States.
With its mix of Biblical grace, Gothic Americana, and warrior-woman legend, Hephzibah carries both majesty and mystery. Its vintage nicknames—Eppie, Hepsie, Hepsy—soften its grandeur, making it unexpectedly wearable today.
Hephzibah, long slumbering in scripture and story, may be ready for revival.
Sources
Withycombe, E. G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.
A poetic rarity, it is from the ancient Greek λαλαγέω (lalageo) meaning “to babble; to prattle.”
The most famous bearer of the name appears in Horace’s Odes (Book I, 22), in which it is the name of the poet’s idealized beloved.
Edgar Allan Poe later used Lalage as a tragic heroine in his 1835 play Politian, reinforcing its Romantic aura.
The name experienced some usage in the 19th-century throughout the English-speaking world. A notable bearer is British educator and feminist, Lalage Brown (b. 1927).
A 19th-century gem and late 20th-century vampiric monikor, the name is of uncertain meaning but has its origins in Medieval Spain. It is likely of Visigothic origins, possibly derived from Gailawera or Geloyra, which stem from gails (happy) or (spear); and wers (friendly, agreeable, true).
It should be noted that Elvira (Latin: Iliberri or Iliberis) was an ancient Iberian and later Roman city located near present-day Granada, in Andalusia, southern Spain. However, in this case, it is likely derived from an Iberian source, meaning “new town.”
It was a popular female name among the royal family of Castille & León, producing two queens who bore this name, Elvira of Castile, Queen of León (965–1017) and Elvira of Castile, Queen of Sicily (c. 1100–1135).
It was later used in Mozart’s 1787 opera Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte), in which Donna Elvira is one of Don Giovanni’s former lovers. This likely popularized the name outside of the Iberian peninsula.
By the turn of the 20th-century, Elvira was not unknown in the United States, though never overly popular, it peaked at #254 in 1914, but fell out the Top 1000 by 1981, the same year Elvira, Mistress of the Dark came on the scene.
The real Halloween link began in 1981, when actress Cassandra Peterson created the camp-horror TV hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark for a Los Angeles late-night show (Movie Macabre).
Dressed in a plunging black gown with a beehive of jet hair, Elvira presented old horror movies with sardonic humor — blending Gothic sex appeal, irony, and B-movie kitsch.
The character became a pop-culture icon: Halloween TV specials, films, pinball machines, comic books, and even perfume lines immortalized her as the Queen of Halloween.
Outside the United States, this name does not have such associations. In Sweden, it has been among the top 100 girls’ since 1998 and peaked at #25 in 2014. As of 2024, it came in at #40.
It’s a popular name in the Balkans, even spinning off a male form of Elvir (Bosnian and Albanian).
Other forms include:
Elbire (Basque)
Elvíra (Czech/Slovakian)
Elviira (Estonian, Finnish)
Elvire (French)
Elwira (Polish, also an alternate Swedish spelling, Sorbian)
Elvīra (Latvian)
Elvyra (Lithuanian)
Obscure Lithuanian male forms are the Lithuanian, Elvyras; the Polish, Elwir(o), and the Italian Elviro.
Name days: August 25 (Austria), July 16 (Croatia), February 10 (Hungary), January 25 (Spain), March 1 (Sweden), November 21 (Slovakia), August 13 (Latvia).
Sources
Withycombe, E. G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.
A name forever haunted by legend and scripture, Ichabod carries an aura of solemnity and old-world eeriness. Though seldom used today, its deep Biblical roots and literary afterlife make it a quintessential Halloween name with legitimate historical pedigree.
The name appears in the Old Testament (Hebrew: אִי־כָבוֹד, ’I-Kavod), meaning “no glory” or “the glory has departed.” It is first recorded in 1 Samuel 4:21, where Phinehas’s wife, upon hearing of the Ark of the Covenant’s capture and her husband’s death, names her newborn son Ichabod to mark Israel’s loss of divine favor.
In the English-speaking world, the name came into use in the 17th-century, mainly among Puritan families.
In colonial America, one of the best-known bearers was Reverend Ichabod Wiswall (1637–1700) of Massachusetts.
The name’s haunting reputation was sealed by Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Its lanky, superstitious schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, pursued by the Headless Horseman, transformed the Biblical lament into a symbol of American Gothic folklore.
Irving is believed to have drawn the name from a real historical figure, Colonel Ichabod Bennett Crane (1787–1857), an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps whom the author reportedly met while stationed at Fort Pike, New York. The coincidence of name and temperament lent the fictional character an extra layer of realism — and ensured that Ichabod would forever echo through ghostly New England legend.
It is borne by several other famous early American personages,
Traditional short forms in the 18th-19th centuries were Cabe, Bud, and Buddy.
“Her head fell back, but she still wrapped her arms around me as if to hold me back.” Etching by Eugène Decisy [fr] after a watercolor by Paul Albert Laurens, 1904.
Origin: Occitanian
Meaning: uncertain
Gender: Female
Eng pron: (KLAIR-e-mund)
A Medieval Occitanian name first recorded in 12th-century French chivalric literature, Clarimond (also found as Clarimonde, Claramonde, or Claramunda) is either a diathemic compound of the Latin clārus (“bright, light, clear”) and the Old High German mund (“protection”), or derived from an Occitanian phrase meaning “bright world; clear world”
In the 12th-century chanson de geste, Huon de Bordeaux, the name appears in its earlier form as Esclarmonde borne by a Saracen princess who converts to Christianity and marries the hero Huon. Similar formations (Florimond, Rosamond, Alemond) were fashionable among the knightly and aristocratic classes of the High Middle Ages. The 1889 opera by Jules Massenet, Esclarmonde, is loosely based on the character from Huon de Bordeaux.
Historically, Esclarmonde and its variants were borne by at least four noblewomen of the House of Foix, the most famous being Esclarmonde de Foix (d. 1215), sister of Count Raymond-Roger de Foix, who was noted for her learning and association with the Cathar movement in southern France.
Though rare, Clarimond saw occasional use in 17th-century England, likely revived through renewed interest in medieval romance literature. Clarimonde was also occasionally found in 18th-19th-century Acadia, and was used by the closely related Cajuns in Louisiana.
In 1836, French writer Théophile Gautier reintroduced the name in his celebrated vampire novella La Morte Amoureuse (Clarimonde in French; The Beautiful Vampire in English). Gautier’s heroine—a sensual courtesan who blurs the line between life and death—cemented Clarimonde’s association with Gothic beauty, nocturnal allure, and eternal fascination, making it an especially fitting name for Halloween
Other forms include:
Esclarmonda (Catalan, Occitanian)
Clarimond (English)
Clarimonde (French)
Clarimunda (Late Latin, Spanish)
Esclarmonde (Old French)
Clarmonda (Occitanian)
Clarmontina (Occitanian)
Mondina (Occitanian)
Esclaramunda (Spanish)
Sources
Withycombe, E. G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.
The name is either derived from the Old Norse gandr (magic wand; magic staff), or the Old Norse gǫndul meaning, “magical animal; werewolf.”
In Norse Mythology, this is the name of one of the Valkyries. She appears in several early sources, including the Heimskringla, in which it is written:
“Gǫndul and Skögul sent out / to choose among kings.” Their presence seals Hákon’s fate, and they greet him after death — both destroyers and honour-givers.”
In the Poetic Edda, specifically Hákonarmál, she is again one of the Valkyries who welcome Hákon to Valhalla, confirming her dual role as harbinger of death and divine escort.
In the Norse sagas and Skaldic poetry, gǫndul can also function as a kenning (poetic metaphor) for “valkyrie” or “battle-witch,” used interchangeably with other names like Skögul, Hildr, and Mist.
Its rarely used these days in Nordic countries, but whose to say it won’t become popular with the rise of other Norse myth names. However, in modern Icelandic, it may sound a touch to close to the Icelandic slang term, göndull (cock, dick, penis), which yes, shares the same etymology as the name, referring to a staff or a wand, but other Nordic languages wouldn’t have the same associations.
